Ventricular free wall rupture is a devastating complication of acute myocardial infarction. It occurs in 15-25% of fatal cases. However, the overall incidence in acute MI cases is about 2%. [1] Clinical markers suggesting free wall rupture include pulseless electrical activity in a first MI, and pericardial tamponade. Subacute rupture takes hours or days to develop, and is suggested clinically ...

Free left ventricular wall rupture following acute myocardial infarction usually results in cardiac tamponade and sudden death. Occasionally, the bleeding into the pericardial sac is arrested by the surrounding pericardial tissue causing formation of a pseudoaneurysm. The case herein reported presented with a refractory pericardial effusion 1 month after an anterior myocardial infarction. While...

We report a case of successful survival from ventricular free wall rupture without surgery, which was not overt rupture but micro-rupture. The patient was diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and underwent primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Myocardial blood leakage could be detected on transthoracic echocardiography with intravenous infusion of contrast dye 3 days aft...

Left ventricular free wall rupture and acute ischaemic mitral regurgitation are nowadays rare, but still potentially lethal mechanical complications after acute myocardial infarction. We report a case of a sequential left ventricular free wall rupture, anterolateral papillary muscle disruption, secondary severe mitral regurgitation and subsequent posteromedial papillary muscle head rupture in a...

OBJECTIVE Recent studies on mice with surgically induced acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have documented the frequent occurrence of ventricular rupture, an event not previously reported in other laboratory species. We have examined the natural history, histopathology and myocardial mechanical strength in mice with AMI. METHODS AMI was induced by coronary artery occlusion and animals were mo...

Left ventricular pseudoaneurysm is a rare complication of myocardial infarction or cardiac trauma. We report a case of sudden death from rupture of such a lesion. Clinically, these lesions need to be distinguished from the other ventricular out-pouching lesions (true aneurysms and diverticula) because of their greater likelihood for rupture. Pathologically, apart from often being infarct-relate...

Ventricular septal rupture is a rare complication of acute myocardial infarction with important hemodynamic consequences. Spontaneous closure is extremely rare. Without a rapid diagnosis and correction by surgical intervention, the short-term mortality of these patients is higher than 90%. We report the case of a patient with acute myocardial infarction and a ventricular septal rupture that was...

A left ventricular rupture due to embolic myocardial infarction is extremely rare. A 72-year-old woman developed an acute embolic myocardial infarction and mitral regurgitation due to infective endocarditis. Two days after the infarction, a left ventricular free wall rupture occurred after transesophageal echo examination. She received an epicardial patch and mitral valve replacement. Periopera...

Ventricular septal defect (VSD) and papillary muscle rupture are severe complications of myocardial infarction which are usually observed individually although their simultaneous occurrence has been observed in pathological studies. An 82-year-old female underwent repair of a post-infarction VSD and 13 days later required mitral valve replacement due to delayed papillary muscle rupture. Mechani...

Cardiac rupture can be fatal after myocardial infarction (MI). Experiments in animals revealed gender differences in rupture rate; however, patient data are controversial. We found a significantly higher rupture rate in testosterone-treated female mice within 1 wk after MI, whereas castration in males significantly reduced rupture. We hypothesized that testosterone may adversely affect remodeli...